8/29/2013 was the initial release date of AAPG and the start of the open beta.
It is hard to believe it has been three years! People today are playing a vastly different game than the one we first released.
We released with 12 maps (ignoring BDX/FLO versions of the same map. All but the Hospital family of maps were "training" maps. They were not well received by many people. I can't blame them; we didn't like them all that much either. It is a long story as to why those maps were made the way they were.
Our features have changed and evolved over time. For the better I hope. Some examples:
When the game first came out people could spectate their own dead bodies. This was a bad idea. :) We knew it but it took a while to get permission to change that. One would often hear "Nade my body!" over comms in those days.
Once upon a time players could be revived twice and downed bodies would never bleed out. Made for a very different game then. We are much happier with the current implementation.
It has been quite a journey. I am proud of what our team has accomplished. Most will never know the obstacles we have had to overcome. Every game has its challenges and working for the Army has its own unique set of challenges! I know some in the community will never be satisfied. That is fine, that is how things are. Can't please everyone all the time. Even Overwatch and its 15 million players has its critics.
AAPG isn't done. In the short term we have more UMM contest winning maps and a net code update is on the horizon.
Thanks for playing America's Army. We only ask that you enjoy it!
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A quick tour of other notable updates over the past three years:
Oct 31, 2013: Added lean, added equippable grenades (previously they were only quick throw), added the Hooah! key
Feb 20, 2014: Redline and Harbor Assault maps, C4 game type (yes we messed up making the bomb securable by defense!)
Mar 27,2014: Mission Editor available
July 3, 2014: Added roles including sniper and M24, Coldfront and Slums, Tactical movement, actual minimaps (previously was a radar with no background)
Sept 23, 2014: Players can drop and pickup weapons, Intercept added, weapon damage falloff introduced
Oct 30, 2014: Overload is our first UMM contest winner
April 17, 2015: The first of several opt-in tests begin
Oct 1, 2015: AAPG officially out of beta with new HUD/UI, rank system, weapon skins, new character models, enemy weapons, demorec, etc.
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Original post by Dev Caterpillar. Come join the discussion on our Official forums!
http://forum.americasarmy.com/discussion/5619/aapg-first-released-three-years-ago